I wish I could be half as sure of anything as some people are of everything. – Gerald Barzan

When thought becomes excessively painful, action is the finest remedy. – Salman Rushdie

Read an interesting article just now about the notion of a “nanny test” as predictor of how someone would function as a corporate manager. The money line:

Managing a nanny is management at its most extreme. The stakes are gigantic: getting someone else to look after our children is the biggest act of delegation that any of us ever does.

I think about Anastasia and how hard I work to keep her happy, how I torque my schedule and structure my weeks around her availability, how I pay her early and ask her often what else I can do. She is a dear friend of mine, now, and truly feels like a part of our family. I trust her implicitly and have often joked that Grace and Whit are likely safer with her than with me. My complete focus on keeping her happy, my absolute orientation around her and her needs, is unlike almost all of my other relationships (I can think of only one other). I feel grateful every day that she comes to work, and I strive valiantly to demonstrate this gratitude to her. What a nice surprise bonus that these behaviors – which are instinctive to me, absolutely unpremeditated or even conscious – might also indicate other abilities!